My Story
Hello! My name is Joli (as in ‘Jolly’) and although I was born in America and grew up on the East Coast, I now find myself living in the middle of England with my husband, little-big girl, and Bocker puppy.
My parents emigrated from India to the US in the mid-1960's, so I grew up straddling two very different cultures--one that emphasised all things modern while the other was about all things traditional.
This was not easy to do in the 1970's and 1980's but Jung speaks about something called the Transcendent Function, which progressively unites opposites within a personality--a third higher synthesis, if you will.
Well, I managed to find this when I went to Japan for my junior year abroad in university: the country has a marvellous way of preserving the traditional within a modern context and through syncretizing old world values with new world ways.
(Photo taken by Joli when living in Naka-Meguro, Tokyo.)
I fell in love with Japan, and proceeded to return repeatedly after graduating from university, spending a total of 20 years there, all in all.
(Pepper as a puppy with Joli in Shimoda, Japan.)
In the process of trying to start a family there in my late-30's, I found my path to be a convoluted one; I changed my diet, gave up alcohol for a couple of years, did yoga, Reiki and acupuncture, and finally, IVF.
The IVF process was brutal--for reasons I won't get into here—but it ended with my getting pregnant finally! We had a heartbeat and all seemed to be progressing fine until it didn't. I miscarried somewhat traumatically--as my then doctor predicted I would due to my age. I was 40.
(Joli and her daughter in Japan.)
I learned Reiki as a way of practicing self-compassion and made my peace with the world by adopting a second Beagle to join the one my husband and I already had. Exactly one year to the day after Dylan arrived in our home to join his half-sister, Pepper, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
For me, my Reiki practice was a big part of this, but so were the dietary changes, the acupuncture, the yoga, and the thyroid medication an intuitive nurse told me I would need to be on to carry a pregnancy to term.
(Joli receiving her certification in Navi Kishin in 2013 from Maeda-sensei in Osaka.)
While in Japan, I also studied a form of Medical QiGong (akin to 'energetic acupuncture'), including massage and aromatherapy. I studied very hard for this as all the lectures and course-materials were in Japanese and in the end, I was the first non-Japanese graduate from this school
After moving to the UK a few years after that, I was encouraged by my astrologer to offer my therapeutic skills in Reiki & Navi Kishin professionally.
This proved to be a successful endeavour at the integrated health clinic I worked in until the pandemic caused the first lockdown here in the UK.
Following encouragement from a few more astrologers I worked with, I decided to super-charge my then hobby-level of astrology by enrolling in more structured learning/coursework and through attending online conferences and workshops.
Coaching then further empowered me to stretch out of my comfort zone and cultivate supplemental skills to complement what I was already offering.
(Joli working as a Reiki therapist in an integrated health-clinic in 2019.)
Learning how to coach has helped me create a practice that centres on safety and the sacred. It has helped me develop a heart-centred approach to my clients’ needs and the growth they seek.
And it has given me the tools to help clients co-create visions, strategies, and overall understanding that can guide them along the unfolding path of their lives.
Life can be both beautiful and cruel and it is important for us to acknowledge all that happens along that spectrum. I am here to be a witness for my clients and hold space for them. And I am here to help them find that place of energetic resonance—the frequency that will lead to flow.